Potd and companions?

[Panda Baby]

hey guys,

companions stats are ok for normal or hard but makes me worried for potd run

 

are their viable?

 

i wanted make my potd run with myself being a herald ( shield bearer/troubadour), and i would love take eder, xoti, tekehu. for wizard i

hesitate between fassina and custom caracter...actually same for xoti..their stats are meh..and i deep hate aloth so not an option..palegina stats sucks imo plus 3 melee would be redundant no...?

 

what would be your advice on this? having me a pala chanter wouldent make tekehu a hybrid redudant also? that would be 2 chanters, keep it pure druid maybe? same xoti? as pure priest are considered junk in poe 2 i noticed compare to custome made and her monk hybrid dont seem necessary as i have 2 melee already?

i could go mc wizard eventually for grab pallegina but same question arise regarding her crap stats and redundancy of chanter with the water guy,  cept to make her crusader.

thanks for your inputs

[Not So Clever Hound]

Honestly, I think that stat allocation is much less impactful than class choice, abilities allocation, synergies/combos between characters and abilities, even gear/items are often more impactful IMHO. The only thing that can make a bigger difference on PotD is Perception for higher Accuracy but with a balanced team you have plenty of ways to boost it and debuff enemies' defenses.

You seem to have a good idea of what/how you want to play and who would fill in the gaps, so I would go with that and really not care much about stats. I think it's hard to find a team composition with story characters that is not viable on PotD.

Pallegina can be a Herald healbot just fine, Xoti is ok whatever your class choice (of course at lvl19+ she can carry the whole party as SC Monk, but she doesn't have to. Priest SC/MC is more interesting if you actually want to use your party). Edèr is always nice (much harder in the beginning as SC Rogue), Fassina is really great as Sorcerer. Tekehu is totally fine, I'd be partial towards SC Watershaper or Theurge vs. SC Stormspeaker.

[Boeroer]

1 hour ago, Panda Baby said:

are they viable?

Absolutely.

I play PotD exclusively and I feel no difference between hireling and official companion of the same class. Except that official companions are more fun to bring along if you care about banter, special dialogues, personal quests and such. 

Attributes are not that impactful for the majority of the game (they really aren't). And where they have the biggest impact - that is in the early game at very low levels - the official companions have the advantage of +1 level compared to hirelings.

If PotD is your choice for a first playthrough it's most likely going to be a very rough ride anyways...  Don't blame it on hirelings or companions then. The most impactful stat on game difficulty is meta knowledge and understanding the (often obscured) mechanics. 

What can happen is that official companions don't have the "perfect class" for your party synergies. But a Herald is so universally useful that this shouldn't be a problem you will run into imo.

 

 

Edited November 16, 2021 by Boeroer

[Panda Baby]

ok thanks thats for the viability, now the compo

 

i'm not 100% familiar with all sublcass/multi yet, are multiclass caracters/companions even allowed have sublasses?

i will stick to the shield bearer/troubadour as MC if thats possible

eder having the offtank role i guess, best pure fighter or swashbuckler ? which subclasses would you recommend if they are allowed

fessina will go sorcerer as sugested, i think the  burning wounds with druids dots cud marry good for damage,  can she be evoker/fury or evoker/life giver for a mix of damage and support? dunno how that sound

for xoti i honestly never use a monk, no idea what to do of them how use them etc   , if she is kept pure class priest  feel it would be a waste maybe so no sure what to do of her lol, give a monk to someone never using it sounds a waste too

and finally for our blue guy from the sea,  keep him a pure dmg dealer maybe with ele sublcass or life giver maybe?

having 2 potential hybrids healer in form of fassina/blue guys would suffise im sure esp if im chanter

 

so 1 spot free  maybe

[Boeroer]

25 minutes ago, Panda Baby said:

are multiclass caracters/companions even allowed have sublasses?

Yes. There's no limitation for multiclass characters regarding subclass choice - except some Paladin/Priest combos where the favored/disfavored dispositions (cruel, benevolent, honest, clever and so on) would clash. So for example Kind Wayfarer/Priest of Skaen is not possible. 

Official companions come with fixed (sub)classes. You can't change those (except with mods or the use of the in-game console). Most of them use the vanilla classes (for example Eder, Aloth) but some use subclasses (Xoti as Monk for example has a special subclass, Serafen has a special Cipher subclass, Fassina is a Conjurer and so on).

25 minutes ago, Panda Baby said:

i will stick to the shield bearer/troubadour as MC if thats possible

Sure. Herald is a strong combination.

25 minutes ago, Panda Baby said:

eder having the offtank role i guess, best pure fighter or swashbuckler ? which subclasses would you recommend if they are allowed

I personally would go Swashbuckler. I even use Eder Swashbuckler as main tank and it works well. At the same time it has more offensive capabilities than a pure Fighter.

25 minutes ago, Panda Baby said:

fessina will go sorcerer as sugested, i think the  burning wounds with druids dots cud marry good for damage,  can she be evoker/fury or evoker/life giver for a mix of damage and support? dunno how that sound

Fassina as Sorcerer is fine. She is a Conjurer Wizard and an Animist Druid. You can't change that if you're not using mods/console. 

25 minutes ago, Panda Baby said:

for xoti i honestly never use a monk, no idea what to do of them how use them etc   , if she is kept pure class priest  feel it would be a waste maybe so no sure what to do of her lol, give a monk to someone never using it sounds a waste too

Priests are good as single class. Their highest spells (that you can't get as multiclass Priest) are very good. Also you gain access to very impactful buffs sooner (single class chars gain access to higher level spells/abilities sooner than multiclass chars). Def. not a waste. 

Tekehu is fine either way. But the Druid spells he gets as bonus spells from his Watershaper subclass are very good because they are all foe-only. For example a foe-only Chillfog is a very convenient and effective spell. Druids are actually better healers than Priests, so you can use Tekehu for healing, too while Xoti focuses on buffing. Both can deal good damage with spells, too. One of the strongest offensive spells in the game is Great Maelstrom. If you want that Tekehu needs to be single class. But as I said: he works fine either way, even as single class Chanter (Stormspeaker). 

25 minutes ago, Panda Baby said:

so 1 spot free  maybe

If I counted correctly you already have 5: Herald, Eder, Fassina, Xoti and Tekehu. 

In Deadfire your max party size is 5.

Edited November 16, 2021 by Boeroer

[Panda Baby]

ok so fassina is predefine conjurer/animist mean no damaging spells for her right as she cant use evocation?

i counted 4 cus didnt includi xoti, but if solo priest can be ok guess that fine i keep her

 

now my issue then is the wizard stuff, if she become sorcerer will it lift the conjurer penalty of no evocation spells? or the multi-classes retain the penalty of each subclass. a sorc/mage without evocation feel meh so need replace her

but having the druid as watershaper should provide already some nice damaging spells no?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Boeroer]

3 hours ago, Panda Baby said:

ok so fassina is predefine conjurer/animist mean no damaging spells for her right as she cant use evocation?

There are a lot of damaging Wizard spells that are no evocations. Also she has no limitations on the Druid side and could pick any damaging spells from there, too.

Damaging Wizard spells that Fassina as Sorcerer could use:

• Jolting Touch [/]
• Kalakoth's Sunless Grasp (C) [-]
• Ghost Blades (C) [/]
• Chill Fog [++]
• Combusting Wounds [++]
• Concelhaut's Corrosive Siphon [+]
• Necrotic Lance (C) [++]
• Noxious Burst [/]
• Wall of Flame (C) [++]
• Ninagauth's Bitter Mooring [++]
• Malignant Cloud (C) [/]
• Wall of Force (C) [+]
• Death Ring (C) [++]
• Ninagauth's Freezing Pillar [++]
• Tayn's Chaotic Orb [+]

The (C) spells are actually Conjuration spells which means Fassina will be more powerful with them than other Wizards would be (Conjurers get +2 Power Level for Conjurations spells). This means more damage, duration, accuracy and penetration. The sign in the square brackets is my opinion on how good the spell is in general. Some - like Wall of Flame - are not great alone but really good in combination with other spells. In this case Wall of Flame + Combusting Wounds is very good. 

3 hours ago, Panda Baby said:

now my issue then is the wizard stuff, if she become sorcerer will it lift the conjurer penalty of no evocation spells? or the multi-classes retain the penalty of each subclass.

 The latter. She will be a Conjurer/Animist

3 hours ago, Panda Baby said:

a sorc/mage without evocation feel meh so need replace her

As I showed above there is no real need to replace her. She can do plenty dmg as Conjurer and you can also use the Druid side for damaging spells and use the Wizard side for other spells (e.g. crowd control, debuffs, self buffs) if you wish. Sorcerers in general are very versatile. Instead of focusing on one single purpose (deal damage) they are much more suited for versatility and have some good tools for every situation: crowd control, healing, debuffing, (self)buffing: a Sorcerer can do it all.
 

3 hours ago, Panda Baby said:

but having the druid as watershaper should provide already some nice damaging spells no?

That's right.  

Edited November 16, 2021 by Boeroer

[Panda Baby]

good points some good spells there left indeed among some of my favs from poe 1

 

thanks guys

[Panda Baby]

regarding MC, i'm torn between 3 races,

orlan for the resolve bonus, moon godlike or death godlike for the +1 intel as to start with 20 intel from the beggining for songs overlapping, or big guy for 20 str start, any sugestions?

i want max might intel and resolve right, or did smth change in poe 2 ? with con around 7 or 8 and dumped dex i think ?

as main job would be tank i think i could get away without max mig

[Boeroer]

That depends on what your Herald is supposed to do. If it's mostly tanking, doing healing and calling summons then that's a good attribute allocation. You don't need to max MIG - higher is better when it comes to healing, but it isn't crucial to really max it out since the Herald has at least two sources of "passive" endless healing (chant and aura) so highest efficiency for limited healing abilities is not a concern. If you combine with stuff like "Mercy and Kindness" later the MIG score won't be that impactful anymore. 

At the same time Fortitude is an important defense, so don't go too low on (MIG + CON)/2 either.

Reflex can be substituted with a shield (especially a large shield + modal, Cadhu Scalth with maxed Athletics/Metaphysics is very good for tanking) and Weapon & Shield Style and your Will will be stellar anyways. But low PER will make any offensive rolls difficult while low DEX will have a rel. big impact on summoning because those summons have really long base casting times. Still doable, just takes pretty long to complete the summoning process. Some summons are very good (e.g. Animated Weapons). If you prefer to use fast, non-offensive invocations (reviving, two fingers of daylight etc.) then DEX doesn't matter at all though.

If I remember correctly, Shieldbearer + shield has 2 engagement slots. That's good for the start. For later tanking and keeping enemies in check a few more slots would be good. Spears have a modal that gives +1 engagement. An early club named Shattered Vengeance has bonus engagement if you are near allies, another club named Kapana Taga has +2 engagement. There's also a "Reckless" Brigandine and a Godhammer Plate that give bonus engagement. Even accessories... those come a bit later though. 

As for race: getting to 20 INT is easy because in Deadfire all bonus attributes from items do stack (unlike PoE!). So a Ring here and a helmet there and you're over 29 soon enough. 

The club with +2 engagement I mentioned (Kapana Taga) has that strong Huana/Polynesian vibe. The shield Cadhu Scalth also fits that style. And the Reckless Brigandine (+1 engagement) is also a Huana Brigandine made of shells and all. Together they look like the "item set" of a Huana Mataru Warrior. So just for style and nice roleplaying I personally would play said Mataru and go with Aumaua or Godlike (Aumaua-sized) from the Deadfire. The bonus DEX from the culture is not needed but it also doesn't really hurt. And as I said you can stack some attribute bonuses with items rather easily. But that's only my preference and I know that some players won't find that style very appealing but want a more "medieval" looking character. In that case tehre's some very cool armor later in the game that fits a tanking herald very nicely (look up Blackened Plate and Blackened Plate Helmet  ).

One last thing: Engagement is more important in this game than in PoE. Disengagement Attacks can really hurt and enemies tend to stick to engaging characters way better than in PoE. So engagement is very useful for tanking (if your goal is not to only soak damage but also keep enemies away from the rest of the party). 

What's also way more important is interrupts. In PoE you only lose time when getting interrupted. On Deadfire you also lose the resource (spell, ability). This is super useful to shut down anything that wants to use special abilities (a Priest casting a buff, a Wizard casting a dangerous spell etc.) At the same time only special attacks can interrupt. Concentration (can be stacked in layers) prevents an interrupt. Every interrupt removes a layer. You don't have Concentration naturally. You need to pick abilities or items that give it. 

Then there is Armor vs. Penetration. It's completely different than PoE.

On PotD the enemies armor is thicker. At the same time the malus from not having enough penetration is very severe, especially if you underpenetrate by several points because you can take those numbers as multiplicative dmg malus (some wild math is going on in the background). So they are not equal to your general dmg bonus which are usually only additive. Therefore, thick armor is THE most important defensive stat you can have. Even more impactful than high defenses if you stack it high enough. That's also because Deafire only knows health and it works like endurance in PoE (there's no health bar that only refills with resting). So if you can outheal small amounts of damage forever while making sure enemies only do small amounts of damage (high armor, good defenses) you become virtually unkillable (except if some nasty hard disable hits you). 

Damage reduction items and abilities ("x% damage reduction") work the same way as damage reduction from underpenetration. That's why I recommended Cadhu Scalth and the large shield modal. 

Luckily the Paladin has several armor abilities. 

Penetration is not a concern for your Herald maybe, but make sure your damage dealers have enough penetration to Punch through the enemies' armor. Else your damage output will be laughable. Penetration bonuses are very valuable on PoTD difficulty. 

 

Edited November 17, 2021 by Boeroer

[Panda Baby]

sounds great, the new mechanics in poe 2 vs poe 1, i really like all this

i no plan summon anything, just being a singing * all eyes on  me  hit me please* holy  guy ,  checked list of all helms in poe 2 on wiki and being unable to equip some dont seem to be a big deal like some u really wanted in poe 1

 

if interrupting is important having druid and wizard put dots on target should do the job no, how are the ticks of dots dependant of accuracy, is each dot tick  having a new hit roll rolled or once a dot is applied all ticks are automaticly hits?  does dot ticks impact concentration and can interupt? if they are considered special atacks

considering my party with sorcerer and druid runnning out of dots shouldent be a issue + insect plague/etc

 

is penetration based of perception or any attribute or it's a diffrent attribute you acquire same as concentration by skills and gear ?

 

considering all you said about items with + engagement and importance of armor, maybe having a goldpact knight for the armor bonus be more valauble than a bearer only giving +1 engage? as lot + engage items around

 

i hate medieval stuff and i love your idea of stylish island warrior , which godlike you would recomend

 

in this case stats speaking, assuming we have a base of 78 stat points same as in poe 1, and that items stack, i should base my starting attributes on how easily i can find items with + attributes i will need, and put points in the attribute the hardest to acquire of items no?

[Haplok]

No great helmets? How about a helm that gives +10 Accuracy to all abilities/attacks that carry an affliction?

I think chanter has a few of those...

[Boeroer]

33 minutes ago, Haplok said:

No great helmets? How about a helm that gives +10 Accuracy to all abilities/attacks that carry an affliction?

I think chanter has a few of those...

That's a bit out of context.

For a non-offensive Herald like OP wants there are no helmets that would make you weep if you picked a godlike imo.  A headpiece that gives you +10 ACC for affliction based attacks doesn't do much for you if you are not using affliction based attack rolls.

On the other hand I also don't see a godlike that's particularly useful for this Herald (mechanically I mean).
Death Godlike: you won't be down near death very often - and since you're not offensively contributing much the added dmg vs. near death enemies is moot.
Moon Godlike: I don't think you will get hurt badly enough that the healing waves come into play very often. But for early game and maybe in tough fights it would be useful - and it fits the overall theme.
Fire Godlike: Nah, same as Death.
Nature: only if there's a reliable way to give a fitting inspiration all the time. 

Of course a general statement like "PoE2 headgear is worse than PoE headgear" would be wrong for two reasons:
a) there are some very impactful pieces of headgear for the right build and
b) item bonuses do stack in PoE2 (and didn't in PoE) - so even a helmet with like +1 PER or whatever (just an example) is potentially more useful than a +2 PER helmet in PoE. 

Back to the Herald in question: I think there are helmets with effects that are cool for this particular Herald (keep in mind: nearly everything from items does stack):

• Blackened Plate Helmet: bonus engagement (nice) & +1 INT (later game though, very tough to beeline to)
• Death's Maw: damage reduction is very good, stacks with dmg reduction of Cadhu Scalth and underpenetration for example (super early purchase)
• Horns of the Bleak Mother: Resistance to Resolve Afflictions. This is nice because it's a rel. uncommon resistance on items, you wouldn't need to pick the passive ability then or pick Wild Orlan - and Resolve Afflictions are just superannoying and also quite common (very early and surprisingly cheap purchase) 
• Heaven's Cacophony: +2 INT (also early)
• Horns of the Aurochs: immue to push and pull - awesome if you are using a Wizard with Pull of Eora to collect enemies around the tank (bit late and tough to make a beeline to)
• Thaos' Headdress: the aura is nice (instant and "free" with the right PoE story with Aloth)
• Mask of the Weyc: cool deflection bonus, but maybe not needed and better used on someone with Wall of Draining (hello Fassina, super late game)

But then on the other hand: this Herald is going for the Huana Mataru look iiuc. There are not many helmets that stylisticly fit a set of Huana Brigandine, Huana Club and Cadhu Scalth imo.
The ones that do (for example the White Witch Mask) aren't particularly useful for a non-offensive, very tanky Herald. Only exception is maybe Horns of the Bleak Mother. They look cool imo and the antler-look fits the whole sea-shell and tribal stuff that's on armor and weapon (and you also get glowing eyes, wow) - but I guess not everybody's a fan of antler helmets. So maybe matter of tase.

So overall I think godlike would be fine in this case. If nothing else then Death Godlike is cool because of the whole "Herald of Berath theme" and Moon Godlike is cool because of the strong bonds between Hauna and Ngati (Ondra). I actually never tried a moon godlike in a party with Tekehu (Marine Godlike, also Ondra) - is there special interaction? Like a "we're kinda brothers" vibe or so?  
I would also be fine with Horns of the Bleak Mother though.

PS: I made stuff I would be cool with bold so it catches the eye.  

  

[Boeroer]

21 hours ago, Panda Baby said:

if interrupting is important having druid and wizard put dots on target should do the job no, how are the ticks of dots dependant of accuracy, is each dot tick  having a new hit roll rolled or once a dot is applied all ticks are automaticly hits?  does dot ticks impact concentration and can interupt? if they are considered special atacks

considering my party with sorcerer and druid runnning out of dots shouldent be a issue + insect plague/etc

Interrupts only occur if you are using an ability (or weapon modal) that does interrupt. It's not automatic anymore - because it's too impactful.
DoT ticks (Plague of Insects etc.) do not interrupt at all - like never. Some of them will remove Concentration though which is very good. But pulsing spells (Returning Storm, Wicked Briars, Chillfog and so on) can interrupt on crit if you become energized (tier 3 MIG inspiration). Then even offensive chants will interrupt on crit. You can become energized easily with the Chanter's invocation "Their Champion". So, an offensive Chanter/Caster with pulsing spells and offensive chants can be an AoE interrupt monster in the later game.

DoTs in general do one hit roll and then the subsequent ticks are applied automatically (if the initial hit roll was successful). Pulsing spells are doing a new attack roll with every pulse.

Again: Interrupts only occur on hit rolls, never DoT ticks. 

Party with Sorcerer and Druid will have a ton of DoTs (and pulsing spells, too), right. Since Armor/Penetration is so vital on PotD difficulty, especially the raw dmage DoTs (Plague if Insects, Insect Swarm, Infestation of Maggots) can be very useful once you face an enemy with a very hard shell (so to speak).

 

21 hours ago, Panda Baby said:

is penetration based of perception or any attribute or it's a diffrent attribute you acquire same as concentration by skills and gear ?

The latter. Perception has no influence on this. It's all about abilities and items (also weapon choice of course - see Estoc vs Great Sword or so, but that won't matter for spells).

21 hours ago, Panda Baby said:

considering all you said about items with + engagement and importance of armor, maybe having a goldpact knight for the armor bonus be more valauble than a bearer only giving +1 engage? as lot + engage items around

Goldpact (especially with Sworn Enemy/Gilded Enmity) is also nice. But for a party I consider the early engagement more important than the added armor. Also Gilded Enmity (+4 AR for some hits) does not stack with Exalted Endurance (+1 AR aura) because both are active abilities. And you really want to use Exalted Endurace for your party.
I personally would stick to Shieldbearer. Also the Shieldbearer's second ability (Barring Death's Door when using Lay on Hands) is very useful as support.

Another thing: yoiur Herald will not be contributing much to offense - yet sometimes you wish he could. For example when he's th last man standing but can't do aything offensively. In those cases Brand Enemy (Sworn Enemy upgrade) can be superuseful: it sclaes with MIG (your MIG is high), it is an auto-hit (your ACC doesn't matter at all) and it is instant with no recovery (your lox DEX and fat armor don't matter at all). It will apply a burn DoT on the enemy that will never end. So it has the potential to kill every enemy that's not immune to fire - you just have to stay alive. And staying alive is rel. easy for a Herald.

So I would either skip Sworn Enemy completely - or upgrade to Brand Enemy.

 

 

21 hours ago, Panda Baby said:

assuming we have a base of 78 stat points same as in poe 1, and that items stack, i should base my starting attributes on how easily i can find items with + attributes i will need, and put points in the attribute the hardest to acquire of items no?

 78, yes. Unless you use Berath Blessing points (basically achievement points you can collect during a playthrough) for enhanced attributes, then it would be 90 (+2 to all attributes).

You should check that your INT is high enough for overlapping chants asap and the rest you can adjust with items as you see fit. 

By the way: you can balance back low CON (at least when it's about health and not the fortitude defense) with the passive ability "Tough" quite easily.  


 

[Panda Baby]

hey, thanks for all the replies,

 

well an auma would fit the islander term and solve head issue.

being a giant sized bearded dude myself i would feel weird plan an orlan.

are the berath points canon/legit?

i seen lot talks about a *community patch* , i don't want drift away from how game was made and intended by the devs, so this community patch is all about *comfort*  or about fixing stuff missed at release by dev ?

 

since i will have the right mig for do some damages, if after getting some key defensive/tankish talents/chants get a few offensive stuff can't hurt i suppose. and since u can respec stuff cept for one picked at level 1, going wrong with skills/talents is no big drama

story wise i will use my poe 1 playthrough for background, during which i kind of...killed aloth from the start for his grimoire ^^, 

 

[Boeroer]

8 hours ago, Panda Baby said:

are the berath points canon/legit?

They are part of the original game. It's kind of an in-game achievement system. You can't have those points in your first playthrough though. You collect them while solving quests, exploring etc. for the first time. 

8 hours ago, Panda Baby said:

i seen lot talks about a *community patch* , i don't want drift away from how game was made and intended by the devs, so this community patch is all about *comfort*  or about fixing stuff missed at release by dev ?

 I was part of the team that made the Community Patch. It's kind of both. There are a lot of bug fixes, but also some minor tweaks of balance - including slight buffs and also nerfs to certain abilities.

"How the devs intended" is a nice approach on paper, but the devs often didn't implement things how they intended them to work. Then the official patch cycle ended and devs couldn't work on the game anymore. So a small group of forum users here with significant playing time (I guess between 6 to 7K hours combined...) got together and discussed what changes would be reasonable and enchance the experience - without silly power creep. 

The patch also contains a rework of keywords (abilites get tagged with keywords so they work properly - for example fire spells get tagged with "fire" so they can be countered with spells that are tagged with "frost" and so on...) which were messed up a bit in the vanilla game.

It also contains unique icons for every passive ability in the game. The vanilla game only had a few icons that were reused over an over for all passives - and it was quite confusing to see all the same icons for different passive abilities at level-up. Those new icons were my doing.

The Patch is segmented into modules so you can decide which changes you would like and which not (for example only use basic bugfixes and the icons):
https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/335

In addition to that it's very easy to deactivate every change manually since every change was done with a separate file. So deleting a mod file will remove that change you don't like.

I personally think the game is better with the Community Patch and at the same time I also believe that the devs would agree.   

In addition to the Community Patch I would also recommend the mod Enhanced User Interface. It is a pure UI mod that only adds more auto-generated tooltips (hover over certains terms to show more info) that are unobtrusive but really helpful, especially for new players. It doesn't change the mechanics of the game.

Edited November 18, 2021 by Boeroer

[Panda Baby]

ok then, guess ill give it a shot. i don't like things being easy, so if it wont make potd easier its all good for me

finishing tomorrow a Xxxxth replay of poe 1 and deadfire time, excited and hoping for some challenge

 

[Haplok]

The changes the Community Patch introduced are mostly slight buffs to a few abilities which were frankly downright crap in the vanilla version - so much that I'd never pick them. But the buffs were not so big as to make them "obligatory", if you understand what I mean.

Edited November 19, 2021 by Haplok

[Kaylon]

As a herald there are many good helmets you can wear. My personal ranking is Champion's Helm > Horns of the Aurochs > Blackened Plate Helm > Heaven's Cacophony > Death's Maw. Usually the Horns should go to a damage dealer who can benefit more from it, while the Champion's Helm is more suitable for the main tank (your herald in your case).

[Boeroer]

The Champion's Helm also visually fits a Huana styled character so that's a plus in this case. But it comes pretty late (end of the Seeker, Slayer, Survivor DLC).

 

[Panda Baby]

hows the xp scaling compare to poe 1 mess?  in poe 1 had to use a hex editor for increase xp needed for levle up...seen  a level scaling option, will that make enemies always of level of party for more fairness? what the recommended order/levels i should do the dlcs and whats good time for pause main story for do them?

 

thanks for the helmets inputs

[Not So Clever Hound]

33 minutes ago, Panda Baby said:

seen  a level scaling option, will that make enemies always of level of party for more fairness?

Yes, or it can actually put enemies at higher level than your party depnding on the situation. It also makes the beginning much harder, and makes Penetration mechanics even more important. Be advised that Upscaled PotD  gives a VERY rocky start if you haven't played Deadfire at all.

35 minutes ago, Panda Baby said:

what the recommended order/levels i should do the dlcs and whats good time for pause main story for do them?

You can do them in any order you want and at any time in the story, they are self-contained arcs. Level-wise, I would go for 16+ but you can try earlier. The game will give you info on the difficulty of quests you pick up, in the case the quests/enemies are higher level than you. (one white skull to three white skulls then a red skull if something is way past your lvl)

[Panda Baby]

thats pretty nice of the game to warn me when and where i risk have my ass handed to me

 

if max level is 20, wond doing dlcs 16 make me hit cap tooo soon? although with scaling shudent be a issue

[Not So Clever Hound]

13 minutes ago, Panda Baby said:

thats pretty nice of the game to warn me when and where i risk have my ass handed to me

On Upscaled PotD you're often at risk to get your butt handed over, even with critical path enemies. When you go after a group of red skull enemies it's just more of a certainty .

15 minutes ago, Panda Baby said:

if max level is 20, wond doing dlcs 16 make me hit cap tooo soon? although with scaling shudent be a issue

With a full party you won't hit 20 absurdly fast, but yes DLCs are high level content so they give more xp. You can keep them for when you're ready to hit the main story endgame. Without spoilers, the game will be pretty explicit about that so don't worry about hitting a point of no return without realizing it.

[Boeroer]

I do Beast of Winter a bit earlier, like around lvl 13 or 14 or so. Else it gets too easy for my taste.
The otehr two can be done when everything else exept the last step on the critical path is done. SSS can be done earlier though, you don't have to be lvl 20. FS has some really tough fights where being 20 helps.